COMMUNITIES INVOLVED:
The Sodha and Jadeja communities share the same embroidery tradition. A senior craftswoman explains how this came about: ‘There is an age-old tradition of intermarriage between Sodha and Jadeja families.
The Jadeja community has lived in Kutch ever since we can remember. Some say they did a little Huramjee bharat, but as far as I know, the Jadejas did not have an extensive embroidery tradition.’
The Sodha community lived in Sindh. From there many Sodha families migrated to Kutch. Their ancestors speak of three waves of migration. The last one was in 1971 during the Indo-Pak war. Pakko and Neran are the two embroidery styles that are practiced by the Sodha and Jadeja communities.
ABOUT CRAFT:
Pakko embroidery is characterized by a sturdy denseness. That is why it is called Pakko, meaning strong, durable in Kutchi dialect. The building block of Neran embroidery is a tiny unit that is either square or diamond-shaped. This unit resembles the shape of the human eye which is called Neran in Sindhi.
